Pilot, Part 2 audio commentary
---- Episode: - Welcome to Pilot, part 2... Did you change your pants How'd you come up with that title? ...natural progression from Pilot Part 1. This is JJ Abrams, I'm here with Damon Lindelof. Oh Hi!.... ...Bryan Burk... Oh, just a piece of fun trivia, this camera position this dolly shot, we kept the same the same dolly....this shot,for Jack running through the woods where the shoe was hanging, and for the group going on their hike at the beginning of the hike, which you'll see later.... ...one location for three very different scenes. I love that look....he is so great in that....creepy ---charlie on plane--- ...flashback number two and... She was really really good.... ...Kimberly Joseph...Who's to say she won't be coming back.... Wait, where? I should also point out that that gentleman facing us, who she's speaking with.....Jonathan Dixon, who's a high school buddy, and he's been in Alias as well, and there's a little cross with Jack's story. This was the first day of shooting again. I love the sounds...... By the way this plane is apparently.... Shannon and Boone.... 8000ft long this plane... ...I didn't want an insert but there you go... ...She's terrific here. That shot was a little longer.... .... there's that window..... this is such a small, a small room, it's amazing that we were able to get in here. ....we removed the...we just shot through the open door....shot through the mirror. Dom was terrific here....in the original cut of this we saw him snort the heroin but we were required to cut that so. So now it's just... He was great there. Everybody's favourite junkie. Charlie. This is a great stunt coming up. Will he? He's gotta. He can't! He must.... Again the plane, completely static. Once again Larry Fong had a light and he was just whipping it all over the place, and Dom was terrific here I think this was Dom's first day of shooting.... It was very difficult to get him to remove his hobbit ears, I remember. This actually used to come first in this episode, in this hour and after this we would cut to.....we'd been following in the first hour. This is just the greatest set ever. (Shannon:My brother, Boone) That's where you learn they're brother and sister. But they're not.... ...really pregnant there...nineteen episodes. Maggie is terrific in this... They're both terrific. It's just an intense scene. ...the second episode...one big long thing, so much more character driven than sort of the incidents...first episode...here's our first opportunity really... ...little moments;again...and Daniel, you know, again throws some looks in this scene...completely define their relationship and just one, there it is,....so good. In almost every scene in these two hours...our editor Mary Jo Markey just did an incredible job...a bunch of coverage... I think she just, while we were shooting the pilot she was working on ...upload the scenes on the computer server....Hawaii... How good was Harold there.... ...they're all amazing. ---walt--- an outstanding job...mysterious Vincent is in fact the same dog... I remember when we shot this with Malcolm.... It's interesting working with younger actors,you don't know what you're going to get, a lot of times...he really listens and gives you his honest, you know, performances, I think you'd ever find with anyone. He was great here. ...timing of the camera, the timing of his movement...really does make it look effortless but is was a lot of work, you know, you only have limited hours with children too.... Unless you're Burk and you have a restraining order. And now we're wondering what's up with these two...what's their relationship like? And the handcuffs of course, sort of framing the entire...mystery. This reminds you of all the different things...end of part 1, where Kate ends up on top of Charlie in the rain, we had to shoot here... ---fight--- here we go, this is sort of Josh Holloway's...they were terrific...we shot this with a few different locations, really this was the first time the ensemble just worked so well and Josh was really just on fire in this scene... ...Naveen was unbelieveable... It probably helps that they don't like each other. That's right. ...the camera pans over to her. I just love how messy it is. (Kate:Stop!) That took a long time to get the right 'Stop'. Yeah, that's right. ....sort of deep enough She also had a very distinct ...Canadian accent.... She nailed it. (Sawyer:Shut up Lardo!) That's the official use of Sawyer's first nickname on the show - Lardo - will go down in history..... Jack and Sawyer, the birth of their relationship. I must say in the. And here's the beginning, sorry,...legacy of lying to Boone....Here's the first official lie to Boone. It's kind of true, just left out the part.... I just want to say that, I want to say something..... Was it about Josh? Err, oh yeah it was about Josh...entire case was there and James Garner who I know...was sitting there and looked over the group of cast members and he had a little cane....pointed with his cane at Holloway and he said "That kid's got a shot", so I love that Holloway was....tapped by James Garner. I love this scene, this is you know, it' an awesome scene... ...the show ended up being about which was - two people are strangers, they're friends, they get along.......and then it turns and they suddenly realise "we would never ever be friends in any other series of circumstances. (Hurley reacts to Sayid's revelation) He just owns it there.... ...gosh.... I believe this was shot really early in the morning.... ...originally it was Burkey... ...began farther to the left....crazy expanse,just so beautiful there. and I remember in this scene..originally..you actually shot her crying.....intensely deep emotional moment sort of coming down from the aftermath of the insanity of the last couple of days but it just kind of didn't play....two halves. And also, it was interesting....we cut the crying out....residual effect as you see that she's going through something... This is where we sort of establish..if there were other, if there were non-Korean....Sun and Jin, that we would not see subtitles...the Koreans were saying to each other. we also realised that....she's going to look great. ....couple of crunches away from running that triathlon. We also had sort of a, you know, a series of scenes between Kate and Sayid, prior to leaving, that were...building romantic access ... cumulative effect of slowing the story down; again you just....get them back out into the jungle. I love this piece of music.... This is another Kevin Blank moment where only one of those mountains is real... ---surgery--- ...That is not good. ...he was really a pro though.... He's just all method. This scene,I don't know why, this scene was harder to shoot than the opening crash, for some reason, it went on forever, but it ended up working out ok. This is Jack in full-on doctor mode; Matthew Fox, by the way......as much as we should be....absolute genius....you just buy him in every single iota. He's so comforting too... ...thank god he's there, and when he says run it's like, you'd better run seriously. Whenever I see this I actually run away from the television. I do. OK, here I go,....going to happen right now....you guys need anything? ---jin--- This, you can't really tell, but it was raining on and off...whole thing we had half an hour to shoot this scene and ...she is so...they're both so good....look at that... C'mon! ...both so great...this shot by the way, this wide shot of him walking off....took a little boat out to and shot from the island... Look at this...defiance...she's so good....hopefully in this episode, that you know, we're doing like fourteen different shows about fourteen different people ...the two of them, in this scene, I can't - this is the show I want to watch all the time, their show.... I think it should be a variety show. But look, Jorge, I mean Daniel's an amazing straight man in this, and Jorge and is so, like honestly - hysterically funny. When he starts laughing here...the camera was so far away from them...half a mile away... ---comic--- ...Mary Jo...the greatest cut ever..Flash and Green Lantern my favourite superheroes ever - together even better... ...Harold was so great, playing...pensive moments....he's great, he's trying to be a dad so hard. ....your dog is dead Yeah. Thanks dad.....but he's trying so hard.... ---charlie--- This...scene with jin and sun; I think it actually was raining here as well....just about to.... ...I love jack has..handprints on his chest.......how did that happen? (Charlie finishes taking heroin) There it is...executed to broadcast standards now... ...snort it but we see.. This too was a slightly longer scene. This was a ....first opportunity to see this character in a real emotional context. One of the challenges when we were shoting...where everyone's supposed to be during you know, these sequences At the end of the day... seemed to when we were shooting but we needed to make sure that we weren't putting too many scenes....too close to each other because the ....sense of location and you'd know if people were in the background......Don Dillion our script supervisor.....on top of me about that. Literally! ...Shannon is told that she is useless, and this is a great fight between these two. This is great because you know, when we originally figured out that we wanted all these people going on to ...going to go....sort of an individual reason to do it and Shannon's going because she wants to prove to her brother she is not useless; he's going to go....can't stand the idea... ..no you didn't!... Now we find out why Charlie's going, because Shannon is pretty. So we were trying to figure out why Sawyer was going to go on this hike, this guy who really you know ...adverserial and again wanted to give him.....an emotional moment and I remember JJ saying...reading this letter....intense reaction to it and then he goes on the hike and I said gerat....what does it say?....kicked off a conversation...deeper character concept and I think we pulled Josh aside on the first day that he got to Hawaii, the day that we shot....him shooting the polar bear,which is coming up...a suicide note that he had written, which was obviously ...what it actually is but he was able to play the emotion....with that knowledge. When we did this sequence we shot...the actors were really troopers that day. ...pull this off and we found a location on a road;this was on the side of a road, just right off to the side...behind the scenes....they couldn't be in less jeopardy. They're about a yard off the ground; if they fell nothing would happen whatsoever.... Absolutely nothing. ...Josh is really hanging on...they really did this stuff...he's helping her up.... And evangeline will climb anything so really. That is true. It was fun for her. I love this moment...little opportunities for these actors to work together and they're so good....than he gives you in the scenes with his son. ....I love that 9,10 thing you know...kid very well. The tyres thing.......got a real plane; it was perpetually debris around that we could move all over the place... ...one of those giant cranes. So Michael now knows the dog has survived. Yes. Which completely changes his....which led to another scene which was cut in the pilot, which was Michael.... ---backgammon--- And here's the.....Terry O'Quinn This scene......rest of the season That's right....first ninety minutes of the show and here we go. (Walt approaches Locke) Having worked with Terry on Alias this was such an amazing opportunity to have him play a character that wasn't ...means of exposition which is what he did so brilliantly.... ...sort of a mysticism and all-knowingness of Locke,so when he talks about things be it backgammon or the magic of the island...what he's talking about and the idea....not a single one of them is an authority in terms of whats happening to them, they're shrouded in so much mystery that there is....I think I know what's happening here; that was the....behind this guy....I sort of gave JJ a draft of it which is you know fairly close........but the end...hey Walt - do you want to know a secret....that lead to a deeper conversation about Locke which eventually resulted in probably in my opinion the greatest secret ever in the history of secrets. Terry is just a genius. Really is amazing. (Locke:do you want to know a secret?) I totally want to know. What is it? ---claire--- ...sitting on those chairs and she's so sweet here...Emilie in this show is like...sunshine, she's just such a bright sweet presence Well this moment coming up....you go, ok, they're going to be alright, you know. The idea too...people you'd never talk to in your life if not for an unexpected event, and then to have this moment happen... And here's this guy who you know we just saw....slap his wife's hand and be completely abusive to her and know he's you know....bringing this woman food....and she's forcing him to touch her belly. (Claire:I guess I think you're a he) And she's right, or is she, no she is, or is she, no she is. No, not right, necessarily. I love this. ...This was Josh's first day,right? Sure was. So this is an entirely.... ... .....an entirely different sound that Burkey made;took special pains to make different... we should really tell them what it is though. ....behind the scenes was indeed Kevin Blank...running in essentially polar bear chaps, and he wears them all the time now. All the time. This was a lot of fun. When we shot this, that's a...I remember that shot, that visual effects shot of the polar bear... Here's the thing...I said to Kevin, there's never going to be a CG bear in this show.... We actually built this bear....in the crate, half of it looked spectacular. We have it on video as well. But half of it was flat. Literally, it was lying...look at the eyes, there- Kevin put that in later, the eye blinking because it wasn't that articulated.... on the set. This is one of those moments of Jorge earning his keep. He's a genius. Again all these scenes....marshall's surgery sort of came in the draft that followed, you know, our decision to let Jack live...what does that character do?.... second half of the story-breaking process, and again Matthew Fox is just like seeing him in doctor-mode is so cool. Funny thing about the vodka.....absurd discussions....it was a plastic bottle or glass bottle. Supposedly you're not allowed to have glass bottles... .....Mary Jo,our editor got drunk for us....they were indeed plastic. This is great. Hurley, seriously don't look. Best sound effect ever. (Jack pulls out shrapnel) We did this...how...we had the piece...the sound effect totally sells it. I think this is cool..gory scene...right here. (Hurley faints) C'mon, what is better than that shot? I think we did...everybody laughed. He is so great. ---back to polar bear--- It's funny if you look at...months before we did the actual series and when we went back into the series, the hairdresser for the show, right when we started shooting......snipper happy and snipped off everyone's hair a little bit more than....hairstyle changed...Boone and Charlie's hair, significantly shorter than it was. If we can stop the film for one second here. to 'making of' footage We'd been shooting for a few days with Matthew Fox and Evangeline and Dominic... outside of those three....it was something that ...a lot of the actors had never met before ....the casting process happened so quickly,so the morning of the shoot....beautiful tree, the location. It wss like a pineapple.... ...a grove... ....we met and rehearsed the scene, worked together for the first time...fasincating watching....where they fit...this scene was really hard, there were a lot of different factors needed to be covered...watching them figure out how they were going to interact with each other was kind of mirroring what the story was for the series.... to episode What I think it really cool about...dead polar bear....to be about the gun and the badge and these two characters and it sort of showed us that denial was in the DNA of the show, that very easily....where did this bear come from, we have to find out more about the bear and all that and they could sort of backtrack...about them....in the writing of the show, we always try to do is sort of keep it about the people and that the island mystery is sort of cool... ...as the characters. Evie is just so fantastic in this scene... The scene has a lot of my favourite lines as well like "I just shot a bear" That was a classic. Now here's Kate......quite obviously she seemed to be fairly dextrous with one. and Josh is just kind of ready to eat her up. I love this moment. Watch this. how Han Solo is that? ...one of those moments where,....with Evie who'd never done anything like this before, again...both were so great. My only regret is I wish we had cast better looking actors for those two parts. There's always next season.... plane I love things like that.weird cuts.... ...Michelle Arthur...and here's Fred Lehne who is just amazing.... A lot of people could put it together already...she's the fugitive but I think some people.... The way he says the word juice here, there's just, I love it. Who says juice? c'mon! All you need to know about that guy. Obviously the Marshall...dying on the island right now...Kate's backstory....for us to have someone as talented as Fred. Look at him. He seems to enjoy the turbulence. ...he's like on space mountain...matterhorn. Cool, let's do it again! This was fantastic, the case that lands on his head was rubber,but we had these tubes... Those were metal. The tubes...there she goes.... That's awesome. ....sort of like the defining shot of the show....this was Evie's first day of work... Second day of shooting.... ...we weren't able to secure Evangeline because she's Canadian ....all sorts of paperwork that needed to be filled out and approved so we literally began shooting LOST without her locked even though we desperately wanted her....finally we found out late on the first day of shooting that she had cleared, so she showed up on the second day and this was the first stuff that she shot. ...the oxygen on the marshall, I thought was another character moment that made you feel for her even though she was a fugitive....Kevin Blank ...remarkable shot... ....sold the show. From the sounds you're just horrified. And again.... to kate ...polar bear, dead...they've moved on. You have to remember also at this point.....all the characters still believe.... They still believe it, today. They'll never give up, at least until season 4. Hurley, still passed out. I love him here. Kate....bring it on... So here we go,we're into the end run of the show...obviously, you know...sort of a four page, five page scene. We were literally sort of you know messing around with up until the literal 11th hour. What exactly was the message, how was it going to play out...understand what it meant Something great about watching this now, having completed the season, which is....had come up with early on... on the first day ......the Black Rock...for the few people who actually speak French, you'll know that what Shannon translating is not all that's being heard and what is said is "I'm going to try to make it to the Black Rock" and it's fun that....season finale.....Black Rock is.....first episode. You guys already know what the Black Rock is ...got the DVD...commentary... Of course everyone will think.... I also want to point out the camera doesn't really stop moving and once again this is Greg with a hefty steadycam...all day..side of a mountain.... ...unbelieveable, an athelete and a... ...lost is a television pilot and when you shoot a pilot you never know if you're going to get to do another episode of it...two-hour adventure was if we didn't get to make an episode after this ...more close-ended ending Which is what we.... we were always saying...try as we might....to sort of sum things up short of like you know, my idea was always two guys.... not on an island - you're in Florida!" Everybody drinks iced teas.... ....and it was originally supposed to be in a higher altitude and location but we just simply could not get there, cos of the rains. You can actually see the location....from where we were, where we were supposed to be and this ended up working just fine. The French woman Rousseau sounds so young and innocent.......she hasn't lost Alex yet, maybe she has. And the voice of the woman on the radio, being performed actually, not by the woman who you see later in the series....she was actually someone I had met coincidentally years ago.......school program, I walked into the studio and she was there, we hadn't seen each other... ...ask us what the numbers are about and....cropping up....that's one of them... Jack's seat..23. All sorts of little...watch closely. I love Dom's look there. My IQ, 42. Exactly. Ian, c'mon. You are just not good looking. ...makes me feel happy And there's sort of the defining line....the 'where are we' line....Dom was pissed off.....thanks for giving me the last line in the show, but you know, there we go..... ...Damon for being the true genius behind this whole thing and Bryan for the... ...please call me, if anyone... and thank you for watching and for caring about the show enough to watch. and hopefully we'll see you coming up for season 2, real quick. See you next year. ...we love you all.... Wait here...hold on a sec....thank you bye.